Millions of Roman Catholics are being urged to stop and pray publicly at 3pm on first Friday of every month as public expression of faith.

A bishop is recommending that they set the alarms on their mobile phones to remind them of the new observance as part of a move to promote faith in the workplace ahead of the Churchs Year of Faith.

It comes in the week that British government lawyers went to the European Court of Human Rights to defend the right of employers to ban the wearing of public symbols of faith such as the cross in the workplace.

The Rt Rev Kieran Conry, the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton and chair of the Church in England and Waless evangelisation committee, said the plan drew on traditions of saying special Friday prayers dating back to the 17th century.

He said: I would like to invite every Catholic, especially during the Year of Faith, to pause for a moment of prayer of praise and thanksgiving at 3pm if possible, or perhaps when you break for lunch, on the first Friday of every month.

I personally wish the clergy would make a big push to bring back the Angelus devotion, which I would think would be helpful for the working laity to “sanctify the time” without having to follow the liturgy of the hours. And while we’re at it, other Catholic devotions like the Way of the Cross could be brought back. I know that the Rosary and Eucharistic Adoration are still practiced in many places, but encouraging them more often would be great too. We are creatures of flesh and blood, and we need the reminders of these frequent devotions to lift ourselves to higher thoughts. And it’s also perfectly in line with Vatican II, which encouraged the universal call to holiness after all.

I see what they are doing. In Britain, Muslims are not just allowed, but allowed by law, to pray at certain times of the day, no matter if they stop work to do so. Employers are required, by law, to go out of their way to facilitate this.

However, the government has taken to abusing the religious practices of Christians to even show evidence of their faith in public.

So when Catholics have their 3pm Friday prayer, no doubt a lot of employers will try to coerce them to stop, using rationales like that have used in the past, that displays of Christianity are “threatening” to other religions and atheists.

In other words, this brings the matter to a head. If the British courts do not permit this, then the Catholic church could invoke old requirements (that likely exist somewhere), that Catholics must pray several times a day.

This could effectively be a monkey wrench in the British economy, to tell the government to quit oppressing Christians in their hatred of Christianity and willingness to kowtow to Islam.

So you are against the universal call to holiness? Is Lumen Gentium bad when it reiterates that the Pope is the supreme governor of the Church, and that the college of bishops can only act authoritatively when united to the successor of Peter and never apart from him?

Not at all. I’m saying the Second Vatican Council and its fallout was anything but a genuine call to holiness. It was all “talk”. It was really a call to more worldliness.

After VC II, Holy Communion while standing, not kneeling, was introduced. Later, Communion in the Paw would be allowed and patens under the chins/paws have disappeared. Friday abstinence and Ember Days (remember them?) were eliminated; head coverings for women disappeared, some saints’ feast days disappeared, many Holy Days of Obligation were transferred to the nearest Sunday, laymen distributing Holy Communion, etc.

None of those things you mention in your second paragraph were mandated by the Vatican II documents. It is the documents that are the magisterial acts to which we must heed, not the things done in their name or the wronful interpretations and implementations. We need a correct interpretation of the documents, in continuity with the continual tradition and teaching of the Church, and Poep Benedict is setting us on that path. Much of what is in the Vatican II documents themselves is not controversial. I seem to recall this year even Fellay or somebody from SSPX said that they would subscribe to 95% of it or something like that. I wish people would be careful about making broad brush cndemnatory statements about Vatican II. One ought carefully to argue about the interpretation and implementation of it, and not simply dismiss the documents themselves. It is an Ecumenical Council approved by the Pope, and some deference is needed to such Magisterial acts, enacted with the same level of authority that the Councils of Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon had.

You did not address a single one of my points. How can you reject the specific “Vatican II” documents, adopted by an Ecumenical Council and approved by the Pope, especially where it repeats what has always been Catholic teaching? Even SSPX doesn’t reject everything in the documents, and Lefebvre voted for many of them. It does not do to say the Council was only Pastoral, since the documents had plenty of doctrine, particularly in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, and the Dogmatic Constitution on Revelation. I think it unreasonable to simply reject everything out of hand rather than accept and interpret in an hermeneutic of continuity, as the Pope does.

And as for the Moslems, they have a wrong and misguided understanding of God, but to the extent their view of God is exactly the same as Catholics, then obviously it is true, or else you are illogically saying that the Catholic Faith is not true. Is God beneficent and merciful, as the Moslems say? Yes, despite their wrong views about God in other respects.

The Jews don’t recognize the Trinity, so does that mean that the Old Testament God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not the same God as the one we worship? The benighted Moslems, like the Jews, lack the fullness of understanding of the nature of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.

“I reject some it, that which contradicts Faith and Tradition.”

Please cite what specifically in the Vatican II documents contradicts Faith and Tradition.

Where are you going with this? Are you saying all religions worship the True God? If not, which specific ones do; and how do they do it if they don’t recognize the Son of God? The New Testament says it can’t be done.

I never said all religions worship the True God. My point is simple. Jews and Moslems purport to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which is the same God we worship. Their understanding of God, however, is defective since it does not acknowledge the fullness of revelation that we have received. This is not a difficult concept.

You reject Lumen Gentium, a magisterial document adopted by an Ecumenical Council and approved by a Pope? I’m sorry, a Catholic cannot simply “reject” teachings of the Magisterium like that. You are apparently a Cafeteria Catholic at best.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.